The present invention relates to a child seat which is mounted on a vehicle seat, and more particularly, to a child seat such that a seat belt installed in a vehicle and designed primarily for use by an adult occupant is extended across a squab portion of the child seat for restraining an infant or a child.
Various types of child seats have been proposed which are mounted on a vehicle seat for protecting an infant or a child in the event of emergency, such as vehicle collision. As an example of the child seats, there is a type such that a child seat body is secured to a vehicle seat; an infant is seated on the child seat body; and a seat belt installed in a vehicle and designed primarily for use by an adult (hereinafter, sometimes referred to just as xe2x80x9cseat beltxe2x80x9d) is placed to extend across the front of the child seat body with an infant thereon to hold the infant""s body to the child seat, thereby protecting the infant from an impact.
This type of child seat normally has, on its child seat body, means for securing the child seat to a vehicle seat. The child seat body is secured to the vehicle seat by the securing means, and then an infant is seated on a squab portion of the child seat body. After that, a seat belt installed in the vehicle is placed to extend across the front of the child seat body and the infant seated on the squab portion of the child seat, and a tongue of the seat belt is then latched to a buckle fixed to the vehicle body.
When the body of the infant seated on the child seat is too small, the infant""s body may not be sufficiently held to the child seat only by the seat belt extending across the front of the infant. In this case, an impact shield should be attached to a portion of the seat belt extending on the infant body so that the infant""s body is held by the impact shield and the seat belt.
Infants are basically categorized in two groups according to the weight. One is a small size group having a weight from 9 kg to 18 kg (hereinafter, this group will be sometimes referred to as xe2x80x9cfirst groupxe2x80x9d), and the other is a large size group having a weight from 15 kg to 25 kg (hereinafter, this group will be sometimes referred to as xe2x80x9csecond groupxe2x80x9d).
Most of the child seats of the aforementioned types are structured such that, when a large-sized infant belonging to the second group is seated, only the seat belt is used to directly hold the infant""s body to the child seat, and when a small-sized infant belonging to the first group is seated, the impact shield is attached to the seat belt and the infant""s body is held to the child seat by both the impact shield and the seat belt.
In state that the child seat body is secured to the vehicle seat, an infant is seated on the squab portion of the child seat, and the seat belt is placed to extend across the front of the infant on the child seat, in the event of emergency, such as vehicle collision during running of the vehicle, a seat belt retractor connected one end of the seat belt and having a function of winding and withdrawing the seat belt is brought into a locked state (a reel of the seat belt retractor on which the seat belt is wound is stopped from rotating).
As a result, the seat belt is prevented from being withdrawn even though the infant""s body moves forward due to the inertia force caused by the collision. Therefore, the infant""s body can be held and the impact on the infant""s body can be absorbed by the seat belt or the impact shield attached to the seat belt.
According to the child seat having the aforementioned structure, the infant""s body can be held to the child seat, according to the size of the infant, directly by the seat belt of the vehicle or by both the seat belt and the impact shield attached to the seat belt. Therefore, the child seat can securely hold the infant""s body of various sizes. This type of child seat has an advantage of not requiring a peculiar seat belt device built in the child seat body besides the seat belt installed in the vehicle body. This means that the structure is simple without loosing high reliability relative to the protective performance, thus offering a large advantage in view of cost.
In these child seats, as the impact shields to be attached to a seat belt, there are three types as follows.
An impact shield of a first type is structured such that it is attached to a seat belt, and is placed in front of an infant together with the seat belt. After that, the impact shield is positioned on the lap of the infant just like being carried by the infant (hereinafter, this type of impact shield will be sometimes referred to as xe2x80x9cfirst type impact shieldxe2x80x9d).
An impact shield of a second type has, on its right and left sides, side walls extending downward, and is structured such that it is attached to a seat belt, and is located in front of an infant together with the seat belt. After that, the impact shield is placed on a child seat to extend across the infant""s body to be supported by the side walls thereof (hereinafter, this type of impact shield will be sometimes referred to as xe2x80x9csecond type impact shieldxe2x80x9d).
An impact shield of a third type is designed to be placed on a child seat having side walls on the right and left sides of a squab portion thereof, on which the impact shield can be placed, and is structured such that it is attached to a seat belt, and is located in front of an infant together with the seat belt. After that, the impact shield is placed on the side walls of the child seat to extend between the side walls (hereinafter, this type of impact shield will be sometimes referred to as xe2x80x9cthird type impact shieldxe2x80x9d).
In the child seat provided with the third type impact shield, when a large-sized infant is seated on the child seat and the seat belt is placed to extend across the child seat without the impact shield as mentioned above, the seat belt may be caught by the side walls disposed on the right and left sides of the squab portion, so that the seat belt can not closely contact the infant""s body. This reduces the holding efficiency of the seat belt, so that the infant""s body may not be sufficiently held to the child seat. To prevent this situation, there is a case such that the side walls are provided with recessed portions extending downwardly from the top surfaces, respectively. By passing the seat belt through the recessed portions, the seat belt is not caught by the side walls and is therefore securely disposed to closely contact the infant""s body.
In the child seat provided with the first type impact shield, the impact shield is not substantially supported by the child seat body. Therefore, the stability of the impact shield after installation is extremely low, and the impact shield may sometimes provide stress and fatigue to the infant when the impact shield is used for a long period of time.
In the child seat provided with the second type impact shield, the impact shield is supported by the side walls disposed on its right and left sides, so that the stability of the impact shield after installation is high. Since the load by the weight of the impact shield and the like is not applied on the infant, the impact shield may not provide stress and fatigue to the infant even when the impact shield is used for a long period of time. However, the child seat provided with the impact shield of this type is not selected by the users according to its appearance because the child seat looks unattractive when the impact shield is used.
In the child seat provided with the third type impact shield, the impact shield is supported by the side walls disposed on the right and left sides of the squab portion, so that the stability of the impact shield after installation is high just like the second type impact shield. In addition, the child seat is favored with the users according to its appearance because the child seat looks attractive when the impact shield is used. As mentioned above, however, when a large-sized infant is seated on the child seat and the seat belt is placed to extend across the child seat without the impact shield as mentioned above, the seat belt is caught by the side walls disposed on the right and left sides of the squab portion, so that the seat belt is hardly arranged to closely contact the infant""s body. This reduces the holding efficiency of the seat belt, so that the infant""s body may not be sufficiently held to the child seat.
To prevent this situation, there is a case that the side walls are provided with recessed portions extending downwardly form the top surfaces, respectively. In this case, when it is used without the impact shield, portions of the seat belt lying on the side walls pass through the recessed portions, whereby the seat belt is not caught by the side walls and therefore closely contacts the infant""s body, thereby securely holding the infant""s body to the child seat. However, when the impact shield is attached to the seat belt and is placed on the side walls, a portion of the impact shield may fall into the recessed portions, to tilt the impact shield. That is, this case may lose the stability of the impact shield when it is installed.
This invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a child seat of a type such that a seat belt is placed to extend across a squab portion of the child seat, wherein the child seat has a good appearance when an impact shield is installed and excellent stability of the impact shield after installation.
Another object of the invention is to provide a child seat as stated above, which can securely hold an infant even when the impact shield is not used and the seat belt is placed to extend across the child seat.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the invention.
A child seat of the present invention comprises a squab portion on which an infant is seated and side walls disposed on left and right sides of the squab portion, and the child seat is secured to a vehicle seat. In the child seat, the side walls are provided with recessed portions extending downwardly from the top surfaces, through which a seat belt installed in a vehicle and designed primarily for use by an adult passes. The child seat also includes fitting members for filling the recessed portions.
According to the child seat of the present invention, when, after a child seat body is secured to a vehicle seat and an infant is seated on the squab portion of the child seat body, the seat belt is placed to extend across the front of the child seat body and the infant""s body, portions of the seat belt lying on the side walls pass through the recessed portions, whereby the seat belt can be prevented from extending away from the infant""s body. Therefore, the seat belt can be introduced to closely contact the infant""s body, thereby securely holding the infant""s body to the child seat.
In the child seat of the present invention, the fitting members are fitted into the recessed portions so as to fill the recessed portions, making the tops of the side walls flat. When the infant""s body is too small to be sufficiently held to the child seat only by the seat belt, an impact shield is attached to the seat belt, so that the infant""s body can be held to the child seat by the impact shield and the seat belt. In this case, the fitting members are previously fitted in the recessed portions to make the tops of the side walls flat, thereby preventing the impact shield from partly falling into the recessed portions and thus preventing the impact shield from tilting. As a result, the child seat has a good appearance when the impact shield is installed to the child shield and the stability of the impact shield after installation can be improved.
According to the child seat of the present invention, it is preferable that the fitting members are detachably fitted in the recessed portions. This allows various using situations of the child seat to correspond to the size of the infant seated in the child seat, thereby suitably protecting infants of various sizes.
According to the child seat of the present invention, it is preferable that each fitting member is covered with a cover. The cover is normally made of the same material as a covering member of the child seat body, i.e. made of a fabric of polyester with a lining of urethane foam. The fitting member covered by the cover may be soft so as not to provide an unpleasant feeling to the infant when the infant touches the fitting member.
Moreover, it is preferable that the fitting members are provided with engaging means for connecting to the side walls. Accordingly, the fitting members are securely fixed by the engaging means when the fitting members are fitted in the recessed portions.